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Reviews
Kahaani (2012)
Kahaani - Honesty in Fiction
I am not a Hindi speaking audience. I remembered my 1st Bollywood movie is Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. I love the movie. I was a kid. All the jokes although from subtitles, the over-acting, got me. As years went by and started detaching myself from Bollywood movies, finding movies that are more realistic and logical in nature.
Yep, I found Lagaan, 3 Idiots, Tare Zameen Par, Rang De Basanti - basically Aamir Khan still gives me faith for Bollywood. But I want more. And then I got to know about Vidya Balan when she was nominated for Time Magazine 100 Most Influential. I started to go through her movies list. I watched 'No One Killed Jessica'. Not quite hooked. But Kahaani? It's definitely another story!
My major kudos for Kahaani is dedicated to the background score. It definitely sets the mood just right. Made me feel nervous, sad, angry and all. Next is the cinematography. Instead of choosing hot-spots, the director decided to brilliantly use the city of Kolkatta and manipulate the Durga Dewi celebration to help the storyline. Splendid move indeed!
In the acting department, I could never dispute the ability of Vidya Balan carrying this movie from start to end. She command and conquer every scene. The supporting casts are excellent as well.
In summary, Kahaani brought honesty in its portrayal along the fiction it delivers. The storyline, woven with sceneries of places and faces of Kolkatta locals really created an experience to remember. I agree with most critics saying that the storyline and clues is too long and are too many that in the middle, it was tiring to catch up, but overall Kahaani still manage to give a climax that I fail to expect.
Bollywood heroes, watch out. Can you guys stand next to Vidya and not be overshadowed by her?
Dalam Botol (2011)
What theme?
In my opinion, the movie fail to choose its direction. Is it really a gay-themed movie or a transgender-themed movie? If Khir Rahman had decided well on that, he could come up with a definitely better movie.
Ruby/Rubidin was a man in love with another man, Ghaus. The turning point was when Ghaus mentioned 'If only you're a woman' to Rubidin during their vacation and poof! Rubidin decided to be Ruby. The conflict started when Ghaus cannot accept Ruby and Ruby faced with debt and had to go back to her village to not be accepted by her parents. When her father died, she came back to the village as a man, confused and almost getting married to a local girl.
For me, technically, it seems that Khir Rahman as a director do not understand the process of being a transsexual. I was dumbfounded knowing that Ruby wears a wig and obviously flat-chested whilst the first thing to do before undergoing a sex-change operation is to have enough female hormones that'll prepare her for the operation.
Anyway, the movie was saved by the acting. Jalil Hamid and Normah Damanhuri as Ruby's parents delivered two of the best performances (and lines) i've seen on screen and I do believe they deserve a lot of acknowledgements for that. Unfortunately, the lead actor Arja Lee was a bit wooden and his manly appeal made some of the audience laugh. That reaction is open for interpretation but it's a situation worth for a thought.
I expected a lot from this movie especially for it trying to be different but due to the major flaws, it was hard not to dislike this movie. 'Bukak Api' should be an excellent reference if ever Khir Rahman realized that transgender is the theme that he should go for at the first place.
My Fair Lady (1964)
It's a great musical, but the plot...
Not wanting to be a party pooper, overall, My Fair Lady is such a feast for a musical-lover like me. However, to the end, I believe that the movie itself will benefit itself more with few editing especially the 'Get Me to the Church on Time' number sung by Mr. Doolittle which I saw does not contribute at all to the storyline.
As for the part in which Eliza poured her heart to Mr. Higgins, she told him that she's needed in the house to tell him where's his slippers, to do things for him, in which I couldn't identify at all the physical hardships that she faced in Higgin's house (except for mental stress due to the verbal abuse and the trainings). Sure do what I saw was that she got herself living in a wealthy lifestyle, with maids changing her to pajamas. i was lost for awhile during that scene, but maybe it's just me.
The biggest credit for this movie is definitely the presence of Audrey Hepburn. Oh my, the differences she showed being the commoner and the faux, high class lady is just obvious and mesmerizing. She deserved every accolades coming in her way after the movie.
Salt (2010)
Salt Wanted?
I am a huge fan of Angelina Jolie. But only for her drama characters I guess. I watched Gia, Changeling, Mr. & Mrs. Smith and even Life or Something Like It. She doesn't have the most excellent body of work compared to the like of Kate WInslet or Cate Blanchett but her charisma in every role cannot be denied.
Angie is said the perfect cast for a female lead in a action movie. No contest to that. What she did in Wanted has sealed that title. But to my disappointment, Salt does not live up to the depth and edge Fox has shown us in Wanted.
I could not helped myself from comparing Angie's role in Salt and Wanted. Both had their histories told thru flashbacks but my dear Salt, the flashback is like high school kids narrated by their teacher in the time tunnel. i did cringe listening to the Russian guy's narration accompanied by the ever implausible old footages. I can even hear laughter from several audiences in the cinema.
Then we have the actions. I agreed with several reviews, the camera zoom every time Angie make her punches and kicks annoyed the hell of me. It made me dizzy and it made the actions partially visioned. lack of satisfaction there for an action-craver like me.
Again, we can see resemblances to Wanted from some of the actions. Salt crawling on the semi vs Fox crawling on train (the music score was sounded similar too!). Salt detonating the Russians by the river vs Wesley detonating the assassins head-q (using rats of course!). These deja vu doesn't help me liking Salt at all.
and yeah. 10 mins after the movie started, I knew that Liev's Ted Winter wud be the villain as well, but credit to him, the best scene for me was when Salt decapitate him using the (on-purpose?) lengthy chain.
Overall, my major problem was how Salt reminded me of Wanted but i'm still hoping for a knock-out sequel for Angie's sake. :)
Life Unexpected (2010)
Loved. Unexpected!
I watched the commercial for this series on Hallmark and thought that this is just another unexpected becomings of several characters due to their past. so, I passed on it.
but last weekend, Hallmark was the most appropriate channel to watch since we had family gathering and to my luck, life unexpected was on marathon. i watched the first episode, and yeah, Brittany blew me away with her performance as the teenager, seeking for emancipation, but in the end caught up in the reunion drama. she's just foul-mouthed, but with history that we can forgive her angst.
several reviews mentioned how the adults are not matured enuff in character, but i wud say that, thru the layers that we started to know their stories and obstacles, we get to know that they are having tough times maturing, and to support a child that was almost forgotten (for Cate) and known zero existence of (for Baze), life is surely unexpected and shaken-ed.
I just watched 6 episodes and I like where this series so far. i just hope that the writers cud avoid clichés and focus on developing each character so that people can relate more to them especially to Cate and Ryan. :)
Avatar (2009)
I watched it 2 times (heh!) and still wanting more!
Yup.. this movie is an eye candy, a vivid imagination sticking on your brain for long.
The first time watching this movie, I cried during the conflict of this movie. Somehow this year's animations (read: UP) are able to touch our hearts. This movie is not just CGI craps (read: Transformers, Twilight), Avatar has soul!
Avatar is not thrown to us to go ga-ga about the visual effects, it comes with the message of hope, peace and love for our mother-earth. 2154.. if only Pandora exists, and if only US foreign policy stays the same, I bet what's portrayed in Avatar will definitely happen.
Some would say this movie is not original, some even compared it to Pocahontas, but I say, whatever the similarities are, it sure make us think twice before hurting our mother-earth and indigenous tribes all over the world.
I would say my pick for Oscar this year would be Avatar, but who knows underdog will reign supreme again (read: Slumdog defeated Benjamin Button). I sure can't wait for Cameron's 2011 next flick!